Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Beyond The Grave [It Has Been Done!] [18th June 2007]

Excellent work, excellent project and excellent anime. Keep it up 'til the end.

 

You know you're cool when you cut bits off an HDD.

 

wow! this mod is really good looking! Keep going dude.

 

hmm using the pcb of a HDD as a fan controller that might just work hmm i have an idea!!!!

 

Update #16 [Final Touch Before...] [2007-06-14]

Sorry for not updating last sunday, but everything took more time than anticipated. As usual...


For starters I've engraved the left side. First is how it's supposed to look like.


I don't like engraving directly from the image, due to the small difference in height, so I prefer to paint the motiv on the acrylic, so I don't have to deal with that when I'm working live.


I also got myself the text pre-cut to get the maximum possible precision, even though Wolverine will probably frown upon me


The outlines done:


And a small sneak-peak (kinda crappy pic though).



Front assemblied, and the fans attached =D





I've finished up the right side as well:


Some engraving in the circle:




A few parts for that extra touch...









Here's what's supposed to be the backlight for the motherboard. I hope it looks cool...




And some small parts here as well:







Over to the fan control that I was going on about before. It turned out great






I added some lights, and I also somewhat polished the plate underneath, that you can see through the circular hole in the bottom. The cables and lights will get mirrored a bit there =D




I engraved a small GG logo on it as well



I put the front I/O thingie together, I just hope it'll be working as intended when I power it up...





Over to the front, which I connected to the LEDs and buttons.


Looking good...


...I thought, until I tried on the acrylic front on. Seems I made another stupid misstake. You see the small hole in the upper right corner? Most annoying. I guess that's what happens when you change someting without analyzing all the possible effects from doing so.


While it might not be very notable, It'll annoy the crap out of me forever, so I made another front.



This is what I've got at my disposal for lighting the case up.


In the end I only needed 1 LazerLED, 4 small LED Aqua tubes, and 1 longer lava light tube.



The back looked a bit empty, and certainly not red enough for my taste. This little acrylic piece should solve that.



Oh, and here's my scratch-made power cables for all the HDDs! Pretty neat huh?



Right now I'm unpatiently waiting for the silicone holding the lights to cure, so I can connect some cables and put all the hardware in. If nothing goes terribly wrong, the final pics will be upp on saturday evening.

Cya around then.

 

Looking VERY good so far! Everything is very well planned and laid out and your cables look perfect. Great work man, can't wait to see some pictures of the whole thing!!!

 

awesome!!!!! keep it up!

 

Your attention to detail is amazing. The wiring inside the hdd is a fine example.

Looking forward to seeing more of this project!

 

wow

 

hd fan controller? BRILLIANT!
I can't belive how steady your etching is. I would have little tangent lines going everywhere if I tried this...

 

This just gets better and better! Really REALLY awesome work.

 

This is amazing mod good luck on completing it.

 

WOW the front look dam good and kickass.. hell love it too much

 

Bra jobbat !!
You have very good metal and plexi working skills !!!
You have my respect .

 

Glad you gys like it

I'm currently installing all the HDDs, and trying to get those cables set up in an orderly fashion :/

It seems everything is working, even the front I/O I was scared to plug in

I'll come around for some pics tonight.

I absolutely love my remote =D

 

Simply Amazing...

The electrical work is phenomenal!!! Well done.

 

Very nice indeed.

 

wow just wow
that is incredible work.

 

Great idea to use an old HD for the power switches... Simply brilliant.

 

Update #17 [It Has Been Done!] [2007-06-18]

All done! Sorry yet again for the delays, I had a **** weekend. Skip next part if you're not interested

(1 HDD with all music and installs for programs decided to go AWOL on me which set me back about 15hrs restoring everything, and when all was installed and done for the photoshoot, my Diamondback decided to go die on me as I plugged it back afterwards >< )

Anyways, back on topic!

Sorry for the quality of some of the pics. I took about 90 of them, but still I didn't get enough good pics. Either the camera doesn't like red lights in the dark, or I need to get a tripod.

Let's start with some pics with the sides and front removed:













A pretty good shot of the engraving:



All sides on:























Here's some pics in the dark as well:











And finally a few with extra long exposure:













For those interested, here's some stats/info:

Build time: ~250hrs +planning
Cash spent: I didn't keep track
Weight: 20Kg with current system. Max weight fully fitted with 11HDDs will be 22Kg.
Noise Level: I measured 38db 30cm from the case, with an ambience of ~30db.
Cooling: 4xPapst 120mm@5V, 2xPapst120mm@7V, Zalman VF900, SLK947U with Papst92mm@8V

Hardware: I know it's old stuff, but for what it's supposed to do, it works well.
Mainboard: Abit AN7
Sound: Soundstorm DDLive!
CPU: AthlonXP2500+ @2,2Ghz
RAM: Corsair TWINX1024-3200XL
PSU: Antec NeoHE 430W Modular
GFX: Sapphire Radeon1600PRO HDMI
Cards: Promise Ultra100TX2, SATA300TX4
DVD: NEC AD-7173A Labelflash IDE
Extra features: 4xHDD activity LEDs, Shiny surfaces I'll spend more time cleaning than using the computer.

HDDS:
2x500GB Maxtor DMax11 16MB SATA2
1x250GB Maxtor DMax10 16MB SATA
2x200GB Maxtor DMax10 8MB SATA
1x250GB Maxtor DMax9+ 8MB IDE
2x200GB WDigital Caviar SE 8MB IDE
~2,3TB

(I have a few others lying around as well)


For comparision, my old watercooled Chieftec fulltower weights 30Kg with everthing fitted, and its noise level was measured to 50db. This makes the projects 3 primary goals completed; Less weight, less sound and more HDDs.

This case is actually the most quiet case of all I've made so far
Chieftec Fulltower > Temple Of NOD > mATX gaming system > Beyond The Grave



Thanks go out to everyone that has supported me and helped me. This includes but is not limited to:
Everyone at Tidaholmsvagnar
The guys over at Åbergs Plåt
You guys here at bit-tech.net

Now, I rest